Sony’s not messing around, the electronics company really does want to revolutionize digital photography. And while we still haven’t seen the potential of the curved sensor technology Sony’s been teasing us with for months, another Sony sensor patent is stirring up even more interest and excitement.

This one describes something called ‘Active-Pixel Color Sampling’ technology, or APCS (that’s not gonna be confusing at all…), and it’s poised to take frame-rates, dynamic range, and low-light capabilities to heights that could legitimately be called insane. Read more…

While the video above is a bit short and doesn’t explain what exactly is going on, the technology at work in the video is intriguing to say the least — especially for CCTV cameras.

Read more…

The folks at Lytro have always believed that light field technology is the future, and not just for photography and storytelling. They believe that anything with a lens and a sensor can benefit from the technology, and with today’s announcement of the Lytro Platform, they’re opening up their proprietary tech to anybody who wants to partner up with them and expand light field into new markets. Read more…

Imagine an image sensor that can expose different parts of an image differently, not by using multiple shots and blending them intelligently, but all at once on a per-pixel basis. Seem like science fiction? We thought so too, but that’s exactly what Sony is proposing in a recent patent. Read more…

Trying to record and gather data on very shy animals like emperor penguins is a big challenge for scientists. Getting close to them, even with remote-controlled rover cameras, often scares them or makes them act differently.

So, how do you solve this? If you’re Yvon Le Maho and his team from the University of Strasbourg in France, you dress the rover up as a fuzzy penguin chick before sending it on its way. Read more…

Most cameras are limited in a number of ways due to the fact that their sensor is integrated into the camera body and unable to move on any axis. However, a new patent by Sony shows that they might be looking to change that in their future systems. Read more…

Aerial photography drones are more ubiquitous than ever. But as wonderful as they are for documenting the world around us from a bird’s-eye view, they inherently come with a number of safety and regulatory issues.

Solving these woes in a creative and somewhat strange way is Sergei Lupashin, who has created a clever little device called the Fotokite. Essentially, he put the camera drone on a leash. Read more…

To celebrate the return of LeBron James yesterday, the Cleveland Cavaliers decided to do a massive group photo with all the fans in attendance. Today they released the 360-degree, 20-gigapixel photograph online for fans to find themselves in, tag, and share.

The giant group panorama — and many others like it — was captured by a company called Fancam, which specializes in shooting some of the largest group shots in history.
Read more…

Wireless Internet is now commonplace, but one thing that’s generally still wired is electricity. One day, however, you might be juicing up your gadgets with wireless energy routers instead of cables and battery chargers.

Energous Corporation is one company trying to make that vision a reality. It has developed a technology called WattUp that aims to change the way you think about how electronic devices are charged and powered.
Read more…

Google’s Nexus 5 and 6 smartphones have a new Camera app feature called HDR+. This mode uses fancy computational photography tricks to help you capture better photos in situations with uneven lighting or low amounts of light.

In a post published to the Google Research blog this past week, researchers behind the new feature offer a peek at the inner workings.
Read more…